Family and Finances: Episode 11, Part 1

- Welcome back to the podcast, Ann. - It's great to be here with you. - I think today is one of our most, it's really one of my favorite lessons. God's part and our part. And I would say for us, it was a foundational shift in how we thought about money. - Completely changed our worldview. - It summarized the fact that God is both our, God is the owner, the provider, and the controller of all things. - And a verse totally put that in perspective for us. - I think we memorized this 20 years ago, and it may be a little rough, but let's try to say it. It's 1st Chronicles 29, 11 and 12. Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, O Lord. And this is your kingdom. - And this is your kingdom. - We adore you as being in control of everything. - Rich is an honor to come from you alone, and you're the ruler of all mankind. - Your hand controls power and might, and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength. - Hey, you got it, thank you. We got through that. That summarizes so much of God's part and our part. It establishes that God owns everything, so he is in fact the owner of all things. And for us, we went through the crown class, and we took very seriously that exercise

to fill out a deed that said, we would quit claiming things as our own. - And we led that study several times, and we saw how that deed really impacted several people. - Well, it's more than just a verse to us. It's a way of living. We had a testimony come in this weekend from somebody who signed that deed back in the 90s, and they put all their material possessions on it. They put all their children on it. They put everything they could think of that they might ever claim as their own, and said, Lord, this is all yours. I'm just your temporary steward. Little did they know that their son, 28-year-old Matthew, would die in a climbing accident years later, and they took that deed to the funeral and read it out loud, reminding themselves that they didn't own even their own children. And so, that is the impact of seeing God as the provider and we're simply his steward. And we had a class with teenagers, and there was a testimony that came out of that. - Yes, young Mindy put her horse on that deed. - And it was her favorite possession in high school. In fact, I remember her saying she really wrestled with the Lord, whether to put the horse on there, because she was afraid, God's gonna take it away. If I put it on here, God's not, she didn't want to think that she would let go of control of that horse.

- And I can't remember exactly how the story went. Do you remember the details? - Well, what happened was shortly after she had given the horse over to the Lord, she kept the horse at a farm and in a barn, and lightning struck the barn. And two horses were killed by the lightning. The lightning struck the barn, it came up through the ground, through the horses, and two died. And the veterinarian said, "Some miracle happened, Mindy, your horse survived." And she remembers thinking, "Oh my goodness, that's not my horse." God saved his horse. And it was just a lesson in her young heart of how God can do whatever he wants to do. He is the owner and the controller and the provider of all things. And we've heard so many stories like that in. - Yes, I know several couples would put sticky notes on what they considered their car. It was, they put the note on God's car, God's computer, they'd put it in their wallet, God's money. Just as a visual reminder, it's all his. - It takes away, at least for me, it took away that materialistic drive that my life would count more if I had more stuff. That's really silently, privately what I thought. I was like the foolish farmer in the Bible who said, "Hmm, I'll just tear down this barn and build a bigger barn and I'll store it for myself

so I can eat, drink, and be merry." And that changed that whole mindset for us. - I think on the area of God being our provider as well. I felt such a huge burden to be the provider and we were a single income home for most of our married life. And that verse that we just read says, no, it's not. That God is our provider. That He takes care of all those things. But we do have a part to play. There's God's part in our part. We're responsible for working and carrying out the duties that He puts our way. Well, if I'm the provider, then my part is to be successful. And I think that's how money controlled me, because I just believed that with all my heart. I went to business school. I felt like the only scorecard I had after graduating from college was money. And I needed to accumulate as much as I could to be successful. And God's word never says that about money. He says we have to be faithful. So when He's the provider, then we're faithful to the one who's provided. We are honoring to Him back. OK. Then we also learned that He's the controller. When He controls all things, that also allows us to take the fear out of the future. Because we're so often worried about what if, what if, what

if, what if, and many times those things will happen. But we have to see them as God controlling them and working them together for good. He is sovereign. Even bad things that happen to us, God will turn them out for our good. Chuck, we've experienced the body of Christ, working to help us at times. And then we helped the body, as the Lord made needs known. Let's share some of those stories. Well, God designed us to work. And that's how He provides. When we work, He provides. Remind me of the sign that I used to see over the doctor's office desk growing up. The little sign said, God heals. I collect the bill. And in reality, as we work and God does the provision, when we don't work, we suffer. And so God tells us to go to work. And when we work as unto the Lord and with excellence, then we reap the benefit of that. And so the first thing is to go to work and do a great job. I think secondly, we are placed in a body. And that body is a living organism that is constantly serving the needs of the body. So when there's an injury, it's like the white blood cells rush to the injury in the body. And so here comes the church. Here comes the body of Christ to help you.

And we begin to realize we are not alone. And so often families feel like their problem is just their problem. But when we are in the church and we're in a community of believers that care for each other, that we've been redeemed from our sin, and we've been walking with the Lord, then we're there to help and to meet needs in His body. Then that certainly happened to us. I know there's some of them that are still very touching to you, Anne. Well years ago, a young woman's husband died, and she was left with a baby. And really, not much way to provide. I remember that story. And God put it on your heart to take care of that single mom. It was very young widow. I think her child was under a year old at the time. There was a group of us that worked together. Yeah, and tell us what you did. I don't really remember all the details, except we just gave to this fund. Well, we decided that we should set aside an education fund for that child, that we didn't really know. And you led the way. And we gave into that account. And we asked other people to give into that account. And they did. And so that was a huge blessing to see to help that mother in her time of need fast forward.

I don't know how many years, Anne, 23 years. I get a call from a friend who said, hey, I got a story for you. And he told me the story of a young man who had just graduated college on a 50% scholarship. And the scholarship was given in the name of a janitor that worked on campus for his whole career. And this young man was so grateful for that scholarship that he asked the university to tell him who really gave the money. And this was a student who appreciated that janitor while he was in college. and headed to seminary, and so our friend said, "Well, what about the other 50 percent? Where did that come from?" He said, "Well, when my father died, there was a couple that put up money for my education, and that paid for the other half of my school, and I'm grateful to the Lord." And I said, "Well, that's wonderful. Why did you call me?" And he said, "You were that couple." And it was the young man that we didn't know him, man, but that story came back into our lives years after we had done that. We just started it with some other people, and it grew, and God multiplied it. Well, remind me what heaven will be like when we see that God reminds us of all the little things that He used for good, and how He uses us in ways we never expected. And then the other side of it has been, there have been times we were in need. Oh, my goodness. One year we had a terrible medical bill, and I didn't know how we were going to cover it. You know, at this point we were paying off everything that we could in a very timely fashion. And so lo and behold, I opened the mail one day, and there was a check to cover the whole

thing just out of the blue, and I was just amazed at God's goodness putting it on the heart of someone who didn't know the number, the dollar amount that we were faced with. No. And we've seen that throughout our lives, that God truly is faithful to us in all things, even when we're most worried and we're most concerned. It's almost as if He's saying, "Do you really trust me? Are you going to worry about that? Are you going to just relax and see that God will always be faithful?" And because we've seen it be so faithful, it makes us, in turn, want to be faithful to Him. And so whenever He's provided for us, we want to put Him first. I remember a person asked me about giving one time, and it sounds legalistic when you talk about tithing. And it was beat over my head as a child, and I kind of resented all that. But I told this person one day, "How could I not put God first as good as He's been to me? How could it not be just my greatest desire to honor Him, because He is in control of our lives?" And a friend told me, just in passing one time, she said, "You can never err on the side of generosity. You will never err." Yeah, you'll never be wrong. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we've seen that over and over in. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.